Group Questions
Bishop's Role in Maine Priest Case
Cote Was Involved in Assignment of Cleric Who Ran Pom Web Site

By Kenton Robinson
The Day [New London CT]
September 11, 2003

Members of a Maine Catholics' advocacy group are questioning the role
Norwich Bishop Michael Cote played in the reinstatement of a priest who
ran a pornographic Web site for gay priests three years ago.

Subsequent disclosures that the priest, the Rev. John Harris, 48, engaged
in nude swimming, boating and hot-tubbing with minors at a summer camp
20 years ago resulted in a decision by the diocese last week to discipline
him.

Rev. John Harris

Cote was auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Portland, Maine, under the
Bishop Joseph Gerry for eight years before Pope John Paul II named him
the fifth bishop of Norwich in March.

"Bishop Cote and Bishop Gerry had actual knowledge two to three
years ago of Rev. Harris's sexual misconduct," said Paul Kendrick,
the founder of the Maine chapter of Voice of the Faithful. "Bishop
Cote chose to do nothing about Harris, therefore he did nothing to protect
children. Harris continued as a pastor with Bishop Cote's blessing."

Speaking through his spokeswoman, Jacqueline Keller, Cote this week said
that while he was involved in the Harris case, he did not make the decision
to reinstate him.

"Bishop Cote says he was not directly involved in the investigation
or in speaking with Father Harris about the allegations," Keller said.
"His only involvement was to explain to the people of his parish
why he was being removed."

Harris was removed from the parish of Sabattus, Maine, in January 2000,
after Stephen Brady, the founder of an Illinois-based group called the
Roman Catholic Faithful, revealed that Harris was the Webmaster for a
pornographic Web site for gay priests called St. Sebastian's Angels.

The site, which had 55 active members in the United States and around
the world, included a pornographic video, photographs of nude men and
long strings of off-color chat-room messages.

Subjects included the church's intolerance of homosexuality, where to
find "hot, hairy, hunky men" and answers to a survey that asked
each member such questions as "have you ever gone skinny dipping?"

The site included several attacks on Pope John Paul II and the Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith.

Most disturbing to members of the Voice of the Faithful, Kendrick said,
was the site's inclusion of a photograph of a priest with his arm around
a Mexican boy. "The little guy with me is not my current lover,"
the priest wrote, "but he was a guide ... 12 years old and a great
little kid!"

The site had been operating for about a year when Gerry learned of it.
At the time, Harris reportedly told the bishop that the Web site was an
Internet support group.

Gerry removed Harris from his parish in Sabattus in January 2000. After
several months of counseling in Baltimore, Harris was returned to service
at the parish of Our Lady of the Lakes in Oquossoc, Maine, in June. Sue
Bernard, spokeswoman for the Portland Diocese, said the parishioners of
Oquossoc were fully informed of Harris's involvement with the Web site.

Kendrick said Voice of the Faithful members, who have been forbidden
to meet on church property, find the bishop's decision to reinstate Harris
incomprehensible. Voice of the Faithful is a national organization of
Catholics that has risen up in the wake of the sex abuse scandal that
has rocked their church.

"Something's not right here," Kendrick said. "You won't
let us meet on church property, but you let the Web master of a pornographic
site be a priest? What's up with that?"
Cote's answer, Keller said, was that "there was not a complaint by
any minor in any of this. Following treatment, he was returned to active
ministry because there was no danger to any minors in this."

Cote stressed that his only role in the matter was to inform parishioners
of Harris's removal, but Kendrick challenged that.

"My understanding was the role that he had was that he was in on
most of the decision making, and that Gerry leaned on him," Kendrick
said. "I know that when certain victims have been granted private
meetings with the bishop, Cote's been in the room with them."

Bernard confirmed Cote's involvement in the case.

"I don't know that he was involved in every complaint, but certainly
about this one he was," Bernard said. "On March 18, 2000, he
actually went to Sabattus and he spoke to the parishioners at that time
and told them what happened and explained what the charge was and what
the bishop intended to do about it."

Sometime after Harris was reinstated, the complaint about his behavior
at the summer camp was made, Bernard said, and an investigation was begun.

Bernard would not give the date that the complaint was made, but confirmed
that it was after Harris' reinstatement and sometime before May 2002,
when the Portland Diocese turned over all its records of complaints to
the Maine attorney general's office.

In addition to the complaint about his behavior at the camp, a photograph
was produced showing Harris with a minor who was nude, Bernard said.

Cote said the diocese did not immediately remove Harris in response to
the camp complaint because until the photograph surfaced "there was
really no victim," Keller said.

"There was an allegation," Keller said, "but with nobody
that you could name as being hurt by this. It was only after a photograph
of him nude with a minor was sent that there was actual proof."

It was at that point, Keller said, that Harris sought and Bishop Gerry
granted him a leave of absence, which he began in August. Harris could
not be reached for comment for this story because the diocese does not
know his whereabouts.

Shortly after Harris took his leave, the diocese completed its investigation,
Bernard said.

"We found there was enough information, sufficient grounds to begin
a disciplinary process," she said. But that process, she said, will
have to wait for Harris' return.

Harris' leave could last as long as a year, during which time "he
is not permitted to exercise any priestly ministry," Bernard said.

That's small consolation to the parents of children who attended that
summer camp, Kendrick said.

"A worried parent called me this week," he said. "She
... didn't feel comfortable calling the chancery. Her son attended the
summer camp where Rev. John Harris exposed himself to children. She and
her husband are worried sick that their child may have been naked with
Harris.

"They wonder if Harris performed sexual acts on their child, they
wonder if their child forced to perform sexual acts towards Harris. They
aren't sleeping. It's all they can think about. They remember how their
child reacted fearfully toward Harris years ago."